What: A number of Australia's most popular technology stocks have found themselves on the wrong side of the market today after the US tech-heavy NASDAQ index suffered its worst session since July, falling just under 1.1%. The Australian ALL ORDINARIES (INDEXASX: XAO) has dropped 0.5% late in the session.
So What: The Australian stock market is heavily leveraged to the performance of various other financial centres around the globe, including the US equity markets. After companies like Amazon.com, Inc. and Facebook Inc copped the market's wrath overnight, it was expected that Australia's most popular (and pricey) tech stocks would also come under pressure today.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA), for instance, has dropped just over 2% to be trading at $44.43 while Carsales.Com Ltd (ASX: CRZ) and Veda Group Ltd (ASX: VED) are down 0.9% and 1.7% respectively. XERO FPO NZ (ASX: XRO), on the other hand, has managed to buck the trend with the stock up 6.3%, although its shares are still sitting 55% down from their 52-week high set in March this year.
Now What: Days like these can be incredibly nerve-wracking for investors as they watch their investments plunge in value. However, they can also present us with incredible opportunities to buy shares in high-quality companies trading at discounted prices.
While I believe all of the companies mentioned above have bright futures ahead of them, I am particularly excited about the prospects of Veda Group. Although I already own shares in the company, I'm certainly considering adding to my stake sometime in the near future.
